Kimarii McLemore, 25, was shot and killed Friday morning at an East Oakland adult school where she had enrolled in a carpentry class — a campus that both the school district and its partner health clinic describe, in their own words, as a place people come to feel safe.

The killing at the Parker Community Resource Center has shaken two institutions whose stated purpose is refuge: the Oakland Unified School District's adult education program, and Roots Community Health, the clinic that anchors the same site. Family members told reporters McLemore had warned relatives that morning that she felt unsafe going to class because of a monthslong conflict with a man in the program — a detail that, if borne out, reframes a familiar Oakland gun-violence headline as a question about whether a place designed to protect people failed to. Police call the attack targeted but have named no suspect and announced no arrest.

The shooting happened shortly after 9 a.m. on July 31 at the Parker Community Resource Center, near Ney Avenue and Ritchie Street in East Oakland, after officers responded to a ShotSpotter alert, according to reporting from NBC Bay Area, KTVU and CBS San Francisco. The center is a shared campus: it houses the Oakland Unified School District's adult and career education program and serves as an anchor site for Roots Community Health, a nonprofit clinic that works across East Oakland. The building was once Parker Elementary School.

Family members at the scene identified the woman killed as McLemore. NBC Bay Area and KTVU reported, citing relatives, that she had recently enrolled in a carpentry program. A second person was shot and taken to a hospital; NBC Bay Area reported that victim was in stable condition. Police have released nothing further about the second victim's identity or condition.

For McLemore's family, the loss was compounded by a warning they say she gave before she ever reached the classroom. Her aunt, Brittia Johnson, told KTVU that McLemore had felt scared in the class for about a month, since a dispute with a young man when the program began — a conflict the family believed had been resolved. "I don't know who pulled the trigger, but I know she felt unsafe with the person in the class with her," Johnson said. Her brother, Tyriq Long, described a sister who had been rebuilding: "It was honestly inspiring for me that she was taking the steps necessary to do something different," he told CBS San Francisco.

Investigators described the killing as deliberate. "This was a very intentional crime," Oakland Police Chief James Beere told reporters, adding that it was "not a random act." Beere said the department had "good leads" and was "confident we'll get to the bottom of this," but declined to discuss a motive or possible arrest. He also called the shooting "heartbreaking and tragic" for the family. Beere was sworn in as Oakland's police chief only two days before the shooting.

The location gave the killing particular weight. The Parker campus is the kind of place Oakland has increasingly leaned on as a hedge against violence — a building where adults can retrain for trade jobs and where a clinic offers care in the same visit. That both functions were operating when gunfire broke out drew unusually pointed responses.

"The Parker Community Resource Center and OUSD are devastated," the district said in a statement, calling its schools "oases where students feel safe and supported" — adult education included. District spokesman John Sasaki said the campus was locked down immediately, with students and staff secured inside classrooms and the front office. "Keep your weapons at home, resolve your differences peacefully," he said. "This should never happen anywhere, certainly not at our schools."

Roots Community Health was blunt about the toll. CEO Dr. Noha Aboelata called the shooting an act of gun violence that left the clinic "devastated by the loss of life" and "deeply destabilizing for a community that depends on spaces like Parker as anchors of safety."

Key questions remain open. Police have not said whether the man McLemore reportedly feared is connected to the shooting, whether an arrest is near, or how a gunman reached an active campus. For now, the firmest facts are the hardest ones: a woman enrolled in a program meant to build her a future was killed while attending it.

The Dissent will update as Oakland police release more information. Anyone seeking support connected to the shooting can reach Roots Community Health at (510) 777-1177.